11th European Youth Pairs Championships

The 11th European Youth Pairs Championships, an Olympiad event, took place at the Hotel Vingsted, near Vejle in Denmark. Its my final year as a Junior, and I am keen to get as many events under my belt as possible, so at great personal expense I flew to Denmark to take part. The SBU funded some of the costs, notably the entry fees, but beyond that we were on our own. The royal "we" here meaning myself and my Scottish partner, R. What happened to Falco? He couldn't make it.
  The event opened on a Sunday, but we didn't go then, obeying the religious Scottish law of "Thou shalt not spend money un-necessarily", arriving on the Tuesday instead. The first two days of play (Monday-Tuesday) were given over to a Mixed Pairs event. R is not a girl, (and wearing a kilt wasn't going to convince anyone otherwise), so we weren't taking an earlier flight for an event we couldn't take part in. On the Tuesday afternoon, there was an invitational event for those who couldn't play in the Mixed, and we gladly signed up for that, keen for a warm-up before the main event starting on the Wednesday.

It was an honour to be competing alongside the cream of European Youth Bridge. Never did we imagine we would do so well in the Invitational. We made a slow start, but picked up after the first few rounds. The first hand I will give is this one:

8643
A94
Q874
AQ

AKJ
KQJ105
AK6
102

I am North (the top hand). My RHO is Dealer, and when the tray comes through from the other side of the screen, there is a Pass on it. Playing 12-14 1NT (a major compromise; see my follow up post), I open this 1NT. My LHO passes, and I push the tray through. When the tray comes back, I find that my partner has emptied the bidding box onto the tray - 7NT is his bid. Brave or foolish? Who knows.

A priori, we have 11 top tricks. A slam will make if diamonds are 3-3, or if there is a successful guess in a black suit. I need TWO of these three things to happen for me to make 7NT - about 25% for a Grand Slam; not one we should be in.
The good news is that I get a club lead. RHO rises with the King, and I win with the ace. It may be said that the lead gives away nothing, as I could take the working finesse anyway, but who is to say that would present itself in the play? I now cash five top hearts. After the lead I could see 12 top tricks from Trick 1 - now I just need to find the thirteenth in a pointed suit. Time for a pseudo-squeeze.
On the extra two hearts I am pitching two spades. So does RHO, who started with three hearts. LHO discards three clubs. I am now at this position:

Hand
86
---
Q874
Q

Dummy
AKJ
---
AK6
10

My plan is to cash the Ace of Spades, and then cash the Ace of Diamonds to the 4, King of Diamonds to the 8, then 6 of diamonds to the Queen. If diamonds are 3-3, I play a small spade to the King, return to hand with a club and take the last trick in hand for what would have been a spectacular beer. If diamonds do not break, then instead I cash the Queen of Clubs and play up to the King-Jack of spades, hoping to have a count that allows me to determine where the Queen is.
  Unfortunately, for RHO, he has scuppered that plan. When I play the Ace of spades, he shows out. So now I cash my top three diamonds ending in hand, lay down the Queen of clubs followed by the 8 of spades and claim on the marked finesse. I was pleased with the outright top, but spare a thought for all the unfortunate North-South pairs who stayed in Small Slam and got a minus MP score. It's where they should be, yet one pair was Doubled and two pairs went to 7 Hearts, which also made, thus punishing those who were in the right contract.

That was in the 6th Round, and in the 7th round R kept up the cavalier bidding, and I kept on vindicating him.

K92
KQ43
AK86
J4

103
98
9532
K9865

LHO (East, my screen-mate), opens 1NT, which he alerts. I ask him the meaning and he tells me 12-14. His bid does not require an alert, but his alert did not do any harm (a massive advantage of playing with screens), so I'm not fussed. There are two passes to me, and with 16 points (I am the top hand again), I double - penalties.
  This is passed, but R is understandably not confident holding only 3 points, and pulls to his 5 card suit with 2 Clubs. This is running to the most convenient spot, bidding suits up the way. I cannot know he has 5, so with 2 good 4 card suits myself, I bid 2 Diamonds.
  Then the fun begins. My LHO Doubles for penalties. Knowing an 8 card fit, I think most of my partners would pass smoothly and hope for the best. But R, knowing that 2 Diamonds is not doubled into Game, finds the bid of 3 Diamonds. If they're doubling 2, they have to double 3 - and they do. 3 Diamonds Doubled is the contract.

I get the Jack of Diamonds lead. I play the 2 from dummy and RHO plays the Queen. So I win with the King and take stock. I appear to have four losers - three aces and inevitably a diamond. I am worried diamonds will break 4-1 and sink me. I can cash a diamond now in the hope of a 3-2 break, but that could spell disaster if an opponent wins with an ace and leads a diamond. So, I need to set things up. I play the 4 of clubs. Quick as a flash, LHO rises with the Ace and continues clubs with the 10 - surely he started with A10 doubleton for this play. So, I rise with the King, but what now?
  I am resigned to giving LHO a ruff - happy to, in fact. I know he didn't start with a singleton (he opened 1NT), and I have to lose a diamond some time. What matters to me is that I don't lose two. I can run the 9 of clubs now, which will win if LHO started with three diamonds and 3 aces - entirely possible. Of the three missing queens, I know that RHO has two of them. Were he to have the third, LHO really should have all 3 aces and could still have them even if he held the Queen of Spades. However, running the 9 of clubs will fail if RHO holds an ace, and LHO ruffs and leads to it.
  My other legitimate line is to play up to the King of Hearts. If RHO holds the ace, he can take it and give his partner a ruff, but can't get back in to give him another. If LHO holds it, he will think it better to beat my honour and keep hearts going. He is no longer interested in a ruff, because he needs a diamond stop later.
  I took a view and played the 9 of clubs. RHO played the 7 (a little too fast), and I pitched a spade. I lost to a ruff as expected, and my view was wrong. LHO can kill this contract with a spade switch, but he played Ace and another heart. I won with the King and laid down the King of diamonds, drawing trumps. Now I ruff a small heart, ruff a club, ruff another small heart and pitch the 9 of spades on my last (winning) for a total of 9 tricks and an outright top.

There did come a point where the cavalier bidding asked too much of my limited Declarer skills, but by then we'd given ourselves a margin for error over the bulk of the field, finishing a very pleasing 4th at the end.

Onto the main event. We had quite a clear target for the qualifiers - 49th place. In other words, don't come bottom. That was an extremely difficult task. Several things counted against us:
1. System. We were playing an absolutely diabolical system, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. There is little chance of R being offended by this, as he knows full well my opinion. We were about the only pair (apart from our opponents above) playing a 12-14NT, and my feelings about 12-14NT are a matter of public record. The system around it was basic and ill-equipped for the rigours of International competition. We were hoping the simplicity would compensate, and in fairness, at times, it did.
2. Preparation. We were in a completely different scenario from when I played at the White House. R and I hadn't been able to practice nearly as much. All in all there was little time to get anything but the basics sorted; the White House system and the Denmark system are chalk and cheese.
3. Prepared methods. We had none. Absolutely criminal at International level. But again, it was a matter of time, and the lack of it that we had.
4. Experience. Both of us had played at this level before, but not together. Establishing a partnership style was something that could only be done the more boards we played.
5. Luck. Yes, we were desperately unlucky in the qualifiers and I won't hear otherwise. I'm not saying bad luck ruined our card, but I am saying we could comfortably have achieved our target with room to spare had our share of the luck been an equal one. In the 8 sessions, 4 Grand Slams were on. We were on the defending side each time - and our opponents bid them, even on one occasion where it relies on a working finesse.
I could continue the list; you get the idea.

Here was the first judgement decision for me:

---
A J 10 5 3
A 5 2
A K 10 7 6

LHO     Partner     RHO     Me
Pass       Pass         1S        2H
3S          Pass         4S        5C
Pass       5H           5S          ?

Opps Vulnerable
If anyone can advise me how I should have gone about getting this call right, I'd be very happy to listen (not least because I got it wrong, as is my want).

There were other interesting scores in Session 1 - one of which I am saving for my next post (it was a bottom). We had an outright top on the very next board, which was pleasing in terms of resilience but in all fairness, it was a result of a hideous misjudgement from our opponents rather than anything we did. There's nothing else worth writing up.

I'll give one board from session 2, a hand that I "got wrong" but at least have a decent argument that I "played right".

J 10 4 3
A 9 8 2
10 8 6
Q 7

K Q 2
K Q 7 5
9 4
A K 9 2

I have the top hand again, playing 4 Hearts.
LHO leads the King and then Jack of Diamonds, his partner following with the 5 and 2. On Trick 3, he plays the Queen.

I have lost two tricks and I'm surely going to lose a spade. So I cannot afford to lose a heart trick. I am almost certain that RHO has no diamonds left, so the question is what card do I ruff with?
Gut instinct is telling me to ruff with the Queen. RHO probably has either the Jack or the Ten. But let's work this out, I tell myself. There are two options.

Option A: Ruff with the Queen. I now need to drop J10 doubleton with RHO or find LHO with a singleton Jack or Ten. Note that J10 doubleton with RHO is no good to me. Whilst it is true that I could still catch it by cashing King and Ace, I'm not going to. After cashing the King, if I see LHO play the 10 or Jack, I will finesse through RHO. There are three reasons for this. Firstly, Theory of Restricted Choice dictates that after I see LHO play Jack or Ten, the other is with RHO. Secondly, Theory of available spaces suggests longer hearts with RHO. And thirdly, J10 doubleton offside is a distribution that will be picked up by ruffing with the 7. Mathematically the success of this line is just below 10%, plus a bit more weight by Theory of Available Spaces.

Option B: Ruff with the 7. I now need J10x offside in hearts. A priori odds for two specific cards being offside is 25%. But arguably that's not the way I should calculate it - West will have exactly 3 cards in hearts (I can't afford him to have 4) 33.91% of the time. However, only 3 of the ten possible holdings are any good to me, so that is 11.73%.

It's a close one. Obviously at the table I can't remember the percentages to two decimal places - and how do I factor in Theory of Available Spaces? In the end I took the line that was technically right but felt wrong - Option B. LHO had the singleton Jack of Hearts. Grr.

This brought us to lunch-time on Wednesday, with us already down to 49th place - in other words, we had no margin for error in terms of achieving our target. Onwards and (we hoped) upwards.

Things started well in session 3 - I made a 3NT contract for 68.75% on Board 1. Board 2 brought a shockingly bad 10.42% when we bid and made 6 Clubs, played by R. 13 tricks makes if your name is Deep Finesse, but given an offside 4-1 trump split, I don't know how so many people can make 7 Clubs. Nor do I know how they make slam in another denomination (if that's what happened) - Deep Finesse says it can't be done, so it must be true. And the less said about the rest of the session, the better.

Session 4 saw four doubled contracts, resulting in scores of 200, 300 and two 800s for the defenders. We were the defenders on just one of the four occasions unfortunately. And that was the 200. The -300 I thought was a reasonable attempt - 5 Clubs Doubled is a save against 4 Spades the other way. Granted, 4 Spades doesn't make IF (and only if) West leads from Kx doubleton in hearts.

So, overnight we were sitting bottom. That was bad news. But if there was good news to be had, it was that we were bottom early - being bottom now as opposed to later gave us a chance to change our tactics and time to escape the bottom. At least, I'm going to claim there was a change of tactics - and yes, of course the master plan to get off bottom was all my idea. (If it hadn't worked I wouldn't have said that).

Board 5 was one of the most banal sessions of International Bridge imaginable. 50% would have been a reasonable return, but we don't get reasonable returns, so we got 36.04% - 45th out of 50 for the session and still 50th overall. At this point I wonder if anything can be done to save us. One only has to look at board 6 - a bog standard 3NT played by me that can make no more than 11 tricks - until I get a favourable lead and make 12. That was enough for 4 out of 48 Match Points. I mean what?

Session 6 I don't have hand records for, but again it was a case of playing okay and scoring badly. This set did include yet another Grand Slam that we happened to be sitting against. So we were still sitting bottom with two sessions to go.

Session 7 did not start great. What bid would you make with R's hand here?

K 3
K J 6
A K 9 4
A K 7 6

You are Red v Green.
LHO is Dealer, and opens 2 Spades (weak, 5+ spades, 4+ minor)
Your partner bids 3 Diamonds. RHO says 3 Spades. Your bid.

R and I had a "difference of opinion" on this board, but before we started the next board, we were in agreement. On board 7, West (we were NS) can make 12 tricks in NT, so we were disappointed that -690 was a bad score. Of course, it is a lot easier to defend 6NT than 3NT (more likely to make a costly lead against 3), and I imagine that those who went to 6 came down, as it does require the DF goggles.

Then I'm in 3NT (from the bottom hand, for a change)

Q J 9
7
K Q 9 7 3
K 9 6 4

K 10 5 3
K 10 9 8 6 4
4 2
A

Red against Green, Jack of Hearts led. I really wish I could remember the play of this hand, because I made 9 tricks for an outright top. If it comes back to me, I'll edit this.

When the dust settled on Session 7, we still couldn't get a >50% session, but we were 33rd in the round which put us 49th overall. Having been less satisfied with our play in Session 7 than I was in Session 6, I was happy with that. But had we "peaked" too soon? We still had another session to go. But 33rd was the highest placing we'd had for one session in the event, so there was room for some optimism.

Onto session 8, and here was the first hand we picked up (me North, R South)

A K 9 3 2
J 10 9 2
---
A Q J 4

Q 10 5
A 4
Q 10 2
K 10 8 6 2

R decided to Pass as Dealer. I opened 1 Spade, and partner said 2 Clubs. This does not deny 3 spades, but I can see a 9 card fit in clubs as opposed to at best an 8 card fit in spades. This looks like a hand where ruffs will be important. For better or worse, I chose 4 Diamonds. R bids 4 Hearts (Italian Cue). If I bid 4 Spades now, R will definitely say 5 Clubs, which is no use to me. I could say 4NT, but playing 1430, R would be committed to saying 5 Diamonds (and thereby as far as 6 Clubs) with 0 Key Cards - which there is just room for him to have. I bid 6 Clubs.
13 tricks are there on the lie of the cards. I couldn't count them out in the bidding though, and R did only make 12 tricks, so I'm happy with the 72.92% we got for 6 Clubs=. The next board got us 89.58% - a 1NT contract by our opponents that couldn't make.
After that solid start, I was hopeful of holding out for at least 50% and staying off bottom. This board didn't help:

J 8 5
A K 10 9 7 6 5 2
10 2
---

A 4
Q 8 4
A Q 5 4
A K 5 2

Which hand did I have this time? Neither of these! Our Polish opponents bid 7NT by the bottom hand with this. Declarer can pseudo squeeze to his heart's content, but the bottom line is always going to be the diamond finesse - which works.
It may seem churlish of me to bemoan this 50% Grand when I had a lesser one earlier. But then, I wasn't the one that bid that. R was the one whose job it was to go get the results sheet. I went for the big screen - and was relieved to see that we had actually moved up another place to 48th. That was a much better finish than it had been looking like for some time.

The plan was that we would be more competitive in the President's Cup. The standard of opposition was still as high as in the Qualifiers, but the "better" players would be playing in the finals, which in theory would give us slightly more of a chance.

In session 1 , the pick of the boards as far as I can see was this:

A Q 5 4
9 4
Q 10 8 3
Q 6 5

K 7
10 8 3
A K 9
A J 4 3 2

R holds the bottom hand and he plays this in 5 Clubs, Queen of Hearts led.
This isn't too good a contract. There are two clear heart losers. So R must somehow not lose a club. If he was on lead, then he would have an obvious play for this (even if it doesn't work), but the opening lead is made by the opponents.
North leads the Queen of Hearts. South holds the following hand:

10 9
A K J 7 6 5 2
J 5
A 10

It is easy to work out what South should do at Trick 1 - overtake. When that holds, he should cash another heart. As it happens, he will see his partner pitch. Now what?
The key is in the club suit. Declarer surely has AJxxx. When Declarer gets in, therefore, he will make all the club tricks - a finesse of the Jack followed by the Ace, dropping the King. There is nothing South can do if Declarer holds the 9, but he has a chance if not. If he plays another club now, Declarer will have to ruff in dummy. Declarer can take the finesse and drop the King, but if North had 9xx he will make the 9, as the queen must also fall under the ace. I'm sure there's a technical name for this, but I'll just say trump promotion.
When South failed to find this defence, R made 11 tricks and 95.16% on the board.

We finished the 1st session with a whopping 54.56%. It was the first time (apart from the Tuesday Invitational) that we had gone a session above average and this gave us hope that we could actually do quite well here. Unfortunately, the wheels came off in Session 2.

We started by missing a solid Slam. The surprise was that we got as much as 41% for that. We then followed it up with a good board by doing - nothing. The board was passed out, which accumulated 91% for us. Granted, there was a lot in the session we were not happy with (I can't really go into any constructive detail), but there was misfortune as well - 41% on a board does not seem a reasonable return for our opponents missing a solid 3NT contract. All in all, this one bad session cost us dearly, putting us 55th out of 60.

Onto session 3. and we started against a very impressive young Danish pair. They were aged 11 and 9(!) years old. Two players playing on an International stage at an age that I had not even started to play - and I think most bridge players across the world will be able to say that. They could be future World Champions in the making (you heard it here first), and if so our first board against them will be one to tell the Grandchildren when they are - well, the age these boys are now. By the way: Yes, I have their names, and No, I am not going to publish them on a publicly viewable blog.
This was my hand (All Vul):

---
K 9 8 5 2
9 7 4 2
A 8 7 2

Second in, I pass. LHO opens 1 Spade. R overcalls 1NT. Having seen his hand, I don't agree with this bid, but never mind. RHO passes, so I bid 2 Diamonds, and R completes the transfer to 2 Hearts. This is passed around to my LHO, who enquires about a spade stop - via the intermediary of his English speaking partner (this event did not have screens). On finding out R has at least one stop, he bids 2 Spades. R bids 3 Hearts now. RHO enters the fray with 3 Spades, which is passed around to R, who now bids 4 Hearts. I now expect one of our opponents to double - the auction practically demands it. In so doing, they'll wander straight into a trap. More on that later. But RHO bids 4 Spades. We decide enough is enough and double.
  R leads the 10 of Clubs. Dummy is:

J 9 8 4
6 3
J 3
Q 9 6 5 3

The 9 year old Declarer plays the 3 from dummy, and I rise with the Ace. Declarer plays the King. What now? First, I start placing the points. R has to have the two major aces. He has no points in clubs, which probably means a tenace in the diamonds - that looks more likely than a spade tenace. The plan develops. Has R led from a singleton, despite his 1NT bid? Or is it doubleton? If it is a singleton, I need to give him a ruff now, get back in with the King of Hearts, and switch to a diamond to play through Declarer. If Declarer has a second heart, we will come to 7 tricks - a club, club ruff, 2 hearts, 2 diamonds and a natural spade trick. Giving a second ruff instead of the diamond switch would endplay partner. If the lead is from a doubleton however, I need to switch to the 9 of diamonds now, as I will need the King entry to give a club ruff after R sets it up.
I play the 8 of clubs. R does get his ruff. He trusts my suit preference signal and plays a low heart, getting me in ASAP just in case Declarer has a singleton. Declarer does of course drop the Jack. I make the diamond switch and R gets his two diamonds. Unfortunately, he is fooled by Declarer's false card and does not cash a heart trick, meaning he never gets it. We had to settle for 800 instead of 1100. There was some nice play from Declarer - unblocking the King of Clubs with K J 4, which might also have succeeded in fooling East into misreading the club situation. Then the Jack of Hearts false card, which fooled nobody except the intended victim.
4 Hearts Doubled would have collected a neat +1190 for us. For those of you who know your contract scores, you will know that means there were actually 12 tricks available for us in hearts - we'd missed a Slam. Of course, I thought I was sitting opposite a balanced 15-17 hand with wasted values in spades, so we're not getting there, but on another day the smooth pass of 2 Hearts works a treat. Of course, one has to be confident that one's opponents will re-open. But these particular opponents took the not-very-obvious sacrifice. Well done boys, with the benefit of hindsight you deserved more than the 12.9% you scored on that board.
The second board against them:

A 9 7 6 5
A J 5 2
A Q J 2
---

As Dealer with this hand, I open 1 Spade. There are two passes then 2 Clubs on my right. A perfect opportunity for me to bid 2 Hearts, showing my hand. LHO bids 3 Clubs, which is passed around to me. A perfect opportunity to bid 3 Diamonds. I wonder if R has got the message yet? One of the opponents bids 4 Clubs, R still shows no interest in bidding and I am obliged to pass now, having got the opponents to a Contract of Death.
I get my 3 aces and R has the King of Diamonds to take it one off for +50 and thank you very mu- wait a minute... let me see your hand R:

J 8 4 2
9 8 7 4
K 5 4
6 4

Yep, 4 Spades is an easy make. On the lie of the cards, not even I could have messed it up. Add that to our list of missed Games. The third round continued with nothing to report except another missed Game - by the opponents, and we seemed to be hitting the optimum spots. I fail to see how we only got 43% for a session that seemed to go very well. At least we went up two places overall.

Round 4 started badly, with R going to 3 Hearts unsupported and getting doubled for -200. But then a good (yet boring) result on the next board gave us hope. On to boards 3 and 4 - two boards against Kelan O' Connor and Richard Boyd of Ireland. It was a tale of two 3NT contracts, and of some deceptive defence by R.

9 2
Q 6 5
A 8 7
K Q 9 6 5

K Q 5 3
K 8 7
K J 10 6 2
10

Richard is playing 3NT by the bottom hand, with me on his left and R on his right. The bidding started with Kelan and went: 1C-P-1D-1S-X-2H-3NT-End. I lead the Jack of Hearts.

Declarer needs to assume he'll get the diamond guess right and reel in 5 tricks there. The difficulty is making 4 elsewhere. The clubs seem to be the best bet. A good club guess will set up a total of 4 club tricks on the actual lie. The next thing to sort out is the hearts. Initially playing the Queen to knock out the ace and block the suit looks the way to play, but Richard looks deeper. R bid hearts on the second round missing the King, Queen and Jack. It is quite likely he has 6. So, if he ducks in dummy and wins with the king, he creates a second heart trick if R ever plays them. And if I don't have any hearts, I'll be endplayed whenever I get in.
  Richard decides on this line. He wins with the King and runs the ten of clubs, which holds. I have ducked with AJ8 in the hope he'd rise with the King and give me two club tricks instead of one. But no, Richard plays the Jack of diamonds, overtakes with the ace and plays a small diamond. R plays the queen, so now he can run diamonds. After that, he has to exit a spade. Unfortunately for him, I hold a second heart, which I play after I cash my two black aces, taking the contract 2 off.

9 8
Q 7
Q 8 3 2
A K J 5 3

Q 10 7
A K 10 3 2
A K
7 6 2

Kelan is playing 3NT by the bottom hand (no opposition bidding this time). The 3 of spades is led, to the 8, King and 7. I return the 5, which goes through to R's Jack. R cashes his ace, with me unblocking the 6 with a diamond pitch from Kelan, followed by another round of spades. Kelan pitches a club from dummy and from hand. As I actually held 4 spades, we have 4 tricks - one short of our target.
  R switches to the 10 of clubs. Kelan certainly doesn't need to risk a finesse now, as he can hope for 4 hearts and 3 diamonds. So he rises with the King, cashes the AK of diamonds and crosses to the Queen of hearts. He plays a heart, hoping they will run, but I show out, so he cashes his Ace and King to come to this position:

---
---
Q
K J

---
10 3
---
7

He plays the 7 of clubs, obviously. R plays the 9. Now he is on a guess. Did R lead the ten of clubs from 109x or Q109? Normally it is top of nothing, but R may be trying to fool him into thinking that is what he has so that he wrongly plays for the drop. After all, if R had 109x, he should still be playing the 9 on the second round to make it hard.
Kelan gets it right - he finesses and makes 9. This was still a good board for us as 4 Hearts is the superior contract despite the bad trump break.
If only Kelan had cashed the Queen of diamonds before playing back to his hearts, he wouldn't have had to guess. R started with 4-4-2-3. The Queen of Diamonds would have caught him in a Guard Squeeze. If he pitches a heart, he unguards them, thus losing them all. Or he can pitch a club and the queen will drop when Kelan is forced to play them. However, that is a post-mortem analysis. It wasn't too likely I had 5 diamonds so he won't usually learn anything by cashing the Queen.
Credit to Richard for giving a doomed contract his best shot, and well done Kelan. I'm sure there is a phrase that would be appropriate to sum up the fortunes of people from Ireland on these boards...

As we ended the fourth session, we promised our Slovenian opponents (who we'd already got to know) that we'd meet them in the bar (for more bridge... of sorts). We wouldn't want anyone thinking all we did over there was play bridge and nothing else, would we? Neither R nor myself drink alcohol ("what kind of Scottish people are you?" was most definitely asked of us), but we joined in with the party atmosphere anyway. After all, its all very well going to a big competition and learning from the best juniors Europe has to offer, but it was important to mix with them and make friends as well.
  That said, apparently I am more well known than I believed. Kelan brought this to my attention on the Thursday night when he asked about my Interchange system (any readers from Ellon and a few that are not may be familiar with that name!). R and I bid with Interchange in the bar on Friday night, which went rather well considering he doesn't know it and I don;t remember it.

And if the SBU asks for a report, it was a success story. We did better than could reasonably be expected of us (honest), and we definitely boosted the reputation of Scotland as a country. I can't speak for R, but I certainly picked up a number of tips and ideas for my game going forward. I would share photos of the event, but R has them all - or most. If anyone has a photo of Yves Aubry, the President of the European Bridge League, standing with a tall guy in a kilt and a smaller guy in a brown top, could you please forward a copy to us?

Scotland at the White House

I am back in Aberdeen and have returned from the biggest event of my bridge life so far - the White House Juniors 2012. It was every bit as exciting, enjoyable, industrious, exhausting and nerve-racking as I expected it to be. It was a great experience and one that I'm very grateful to have been able to get. I feel that I learned a lot (at least I hope I did), and hopefully I'll be able to take that forward to new opportunities in times to come.

Things started in earnest bright and early on a Sunday morning (3am on the morning the clocks came forward!), as I was woken by my alarm so that I had enough time to get up, get ready to go and see to last minute details before meeting up with Jun at the airport just after 4am. Of course, we had prepared for this, hadn't we? Surely we went to be about tea time to make up the hours of sleep? Well, no. Best laid plans and all that...
Still, we had an International tournament to look forward to, so neither of us were particularly feeling it. After a routine, but turbulent, flight, we landed in Schipol just after 8am local time. After the smoothest Arrival ever (by the time we had walked the length of the Arrivals Lounge and gone through security - the only two to go through at that particular time - our bags had already come round the carousel and we picked them up almost without breaking stride), we had the task of finding our way to the hotel.
  We had an address, and we had an idea how to get there, but where we fell down was that we were largely reliant on my non-existent photographic memory of Google Earth. We settled on taking one train to Amsterdam Central, followed by another to Amstel, where we got off knowing that the hotel was just on the other side of the river. Uhoh. Which one of these waterways is the river? Neither of us had learned to read Dutch in school, and we had only one point of reference. (You need at least two points of reference when navigating to have any hope). After walking completely the wrong way to get our bearings, we crossed the Amstel and walked past the hotel (which was one block over), but a local was able to point us in the right direction and we eventually found it.
  Dutch people (or those in Amsterdam particularly) are brilliant linguists. I have been to the Netherlands twice in my life and the only person I met that wasn't fluent in English was about seven years old. I'm a firm believer in "when in Rome...", but I doubt my Dutch will ever be up to scratch. One of the English team has actually lived in Amsterdam for 18 months and as far as I'm aware hasn't picked up the language at all. I tend not to take this brilliance for granted and never fail to be impressed. Netherlands, I salute you.

After a quick rest and change of clothes (we now had to don our Scotland shirts), it was time to get lost all over again. We found our way to the tram easily enough, and we got off at the right stop. I had remembered Google Earth well enough this time, but still did not know where the White House actually was. This was probably mainly to do with the fact that I was under the impression that Der Witte Huis was a hotel, and not, in fact, a tennis club. Despite this, another local knew exactly where it was and we got there in enough time for the event.

Above is a picture of the main playing area in the White House. It is taken from the upper level, which housed some of the tables (four on each wing). Most of the tables are not in view.

My partner for the week was Falco. No, that's not his real name, but I didn't ask if I could use his name in this, so I'm not going to use it. (Even if it has been used in other on-line articles already.) "Falco" and I had done a lot of preparation for the event, by using BBO, but the first time I actually met him was a couple of minutes before play started in the pro-am Sunday tournament. Although we wanted to do well, Falco and I were treating this one-day event as no more than a "warm-up" for the week to come, as we hadn't played any "real" bridge together. It was a chance to iron out any systemic wrinkles.

Things started well, however. On the very first board, as West, I picked up:

AQJ83
Q985
3
1084

North passed, and partner opened 1 Diamond. South overcalled a Weak 2 Spades. I smoothly passed this, and waited for a re-opening double from partner. Falco obliged, feeling his hand was worth a take-out double, and I penalty passed. North could do nothing, so we took down 2 Spades Doubled, not by as much as it could have been, as we didn't defend optimally, but it was a start.
  When all said and done, in a tournament that invited coaches, professionals and sponsors to play, we finished 8th out of 24 - much higher up the pecking order than we'd have thought possible. After two big wins mid-way, we were actually sitting 2nd. But we couldn't allow ourselves to finish THAT high; it might give away the fact that we were planning to not actually come last in the main event.
  24 boards was not abnormal for me (or any of us), so we took that in our stride. But for me, the White House Tournament was to be an altogether different affair.

On Sunday evening they erected the screens (which can be clearly seen in the above picture), and playing with screens was a new experience for me. Although I have only heard positive things about them, they still take some getting used to, and I was very nervous when I sat down to play our first match - against Denmark.
  The first day consisted of a group stage of five ten board matches. I posted previously the group, and my reservations about the seeding. However, you can only play what is put in front of you, so we just had to do what we could.
  The nerves were not a good thing. They caused me to misbid on Board 2, and we missed a Game, and before I had entirely calmed down I found myself playing 4 Spades on Board 4. Faced with a holding of AKJ10984 opposite 62 in dummy in the trump suit, I miscounted, Played the Ace and then took a finesse, which turned out to be the only play to get twelve tricks as the queen was onside. Who said nerves are a bad thing?
  One board later, we lost 16 IMPs, and although I again chalked this up to nerves, on reflection the opponents were in a cold Game so the swing didn't happen at our table. Denmark kept up the good work and took the maximum 25 VPs. Somehow late in the match we took 10 IMPs on an innocent looking board, to get some VPs and look onwards and upwards.
  The second match was against Israel. Just what you need after a thrashing by the team that came 3rd last year: a match against the reigning Champions. Nonetheless, I was looking forward to this one. This was what I had come here for. The screens were already my new best friend and my nerves had evaporated. All I wanted to do was put the first win on the board for Scotland, and I didn't care who was standing in my way. Unfortunately, Israel didn't co-operate with this plan, and beat us 21-9. This was adjusted to 23-7 after they called the Director, which we had to accept because there was no appeals committee, which was something of a surprise.
  However, there had been a marked improvement from Round 1 to Round 2, and with two of the big teams out of the way it was time to see what we could do against one of the host teams - Netherlands Orange. We were still looking for our first win, and effectively it came in the first three boards of the match. On Board 21 (the first board) we gained an IMP when we held 4 Spades to ten tricks. On boards 22 and 23, we bid routine 3NT contracts, making 9 and 11 tricks respectively. Our team-mates must've done something spectacular because on both boards we gained 13 IMPs, putting 27 IMPs on the board - the only 27 IMPs we gained in the match, which we won 18-12.
  That doesn't mean we did all the work on those boards. The match is ten boards long, and there were four flat boards, and it is not always easy to stop the IMPs leaking out. For example:

A872
KJ5
KJ53
62

All Vul and Dealer, I open this 1 Diamond. (Better Minor). LHO overcalls 1 Spade and partner doubles. The auction gets as far as 3 Spades by our opponents. In a Bridge Club, 3 Spades would ordinarily be the contract. However, one of us (I forget which one) managed to find a Double. Doubling into Game is not something you do unless you have an absolute guarantee of beating the contract. We certainly didn't seem to have that looking at the hand record. However, we did defend accurately, and consequently beat the contract by 1 for +200 - a flat board, because the same thing happened at the other table. It was to be a theme of the week - International Bridge is mostly about not shipping. You have to play well to get a flat board, as was evidenced by match 4.

I'm sitting playing against Kopecky - a name I recognise, and no wonder. Although a Junior, he has played in the Czech Open team. He was also part of the Japan-Czech team that won the Junior World Internationals a couple of years ago. And he happens to be my screen-mate for 10 boards.
The first half of the match has gone well - I think we're ahead (but I don't know.) Then board 6 comes along, and the opponents, starting with LHO, have the following auction:

1H  2D
2H  4C
4D  6H
7H

The bids are natural until 4 Clubs, which is a splinter. 4 Diamonds is a cue bid. My partner holds:

J652
J
A83
109872

Falco has a serious problem here. His LHO clearly has long diamonds, and for RHO to bid 7, the cue bid looks for all the world like a void. Leading the Ace, which I will grant you many club level players will do without thinking, could set up the suit in dummy and be disastrous. Falco made a quick decision here, and led the Ace - which HELD. Nice bluff by South, matched by an excellent Call from partner. As it happens, without the ace lead, 7 Hearts does not have much play and will come down, but Falco gave it no chance. Things did not get better for Czech Republic; this was our score-card for boards 6-10:

6: 7 Hearts -1 by South, +50
7: 2 Spades +1 by North, -140
8: 4 Spades -3 by North, +150
9: 4 Spades -1 by South, +50
10: 2NT -1 by Opponent, +100

Board 7 we are hoping for a flat board, but on the rest we are hoping for a gain - including a slam swing. My only concern was that I had not Doubled Kopecky on Board 8. I'd a long spade suit myself, but had not wished to reveal that fact to him by Doubling - a decision our team-mates would agree with later. So, having had a great match from our perspective, we looked forward to scoring this up.
  Boards 6 to 10 were all flat boards. Thus underlining just how hard it is to gain at this level. This was the one match of the tournament where we left the table confident of a win - a win not provided by very swingy boards. In fact, we had to make a MISTAKE (of sorts) to win.
  The match was won on Board 3:

J62
A10752
10653
J

I held this hand, and LHO opened 1 Club. This is either natural, or 19-20. Partner has overcalled 2 Clubs. We have no prior agreement on this, so I have to decide whether I think this is natural or not (and Kopecky wants to know). I think that it is Michaels, because if the 1 Club isn't natural, partner probably doesn't want to overcall a strong hand. However, I am not 100% sure, so I bid 2 Hearts. South bids 2 Spades, and partner now says 3 Clubs - I guess it was natural then. Kopecky and I pass, and push the tray through. The tray appears back with a double from South. Kopecky pulls this to 3 Spades, I pass, and the tray goes back through. The next time we see it, partner has bid 4 Clubs. This goes round to South, who doubles again and this time it is left.

Partner held:
Q8
8
K8
AKQ98532

The Ace of Diamonds was onside, so he made an easy ten tricks for +710. That contributed 11 of our total of 13 IMPs, and we won the match 17-13. That was probably our "giantkilling" match.

The last match of the first day was against Bulgaria Green. In this match we took what we got, and what we got was enough. The first swing came on Board 12, where we gained 12 IMPs when partner made a 5 Spade Contract that looks reasonably safe double dummy. Then on Board 14 we gained 14 IMPs. South opened 1 Spade. Falco held:

86532
-
AKQJ10752
-

Falco bid 4 Diamonds with this. In the post mortem it was agreed that 5 Diamonds would be better, but the point was he bid something. North bid 4 Hearts over him, which we took down. For reasons best known to himself, Falco's counterpart passed 1 Spade, and our team-mates found their way to a Club Slam, which they made.

So ended our first day at the White House. It had been a successful day by any account. The match against Denmark was a write-off which was hardly a surprise with two new partnerships. We then competed against Israel before winning our remaining three matches. We couldn't have hoped for better.

Placings in the group stage affected starting positions in the Swiss, which would be played over the next two days. We started on Tuesday against Croatia. I believe the WordPress site mentioned in my last post has a report on that, so I will pass over this 12-18 defeat to move onto Round 7. Here we were up against Ireland.
  Those who watch the Camrose (Junior Camrose/ Lady Milne etc) will be used to seeing Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland as two different teams. In these Home Nations events, this is what happens - the two countries send their own teams, which are usually competitive and one or other (or both) can be in with a shout of winning. However, in all other events, the two combine to send an IRELAND team, and this was what we were facing - the best of both, as it were. This was no Junior Camrose match. Ireland had their best team and we had a new team. Ireland were strong favourites.
  Not to worry. Board 1 provided our first slam of the tournament, and despite it being a virtual laydown, it gained us 11 IMPs. That set us on our way, and in a tight match, we did scrape a 3, a 2 and two 1s to add to the 11, and losing 11 on the penultimate board was not enough to stop us winning 18-14 on IMPs, 16-14 on VPs. (Our second slam of the tournament also rolled in on this match, but it was flat). Although small gains can sometimes be just as interesting as large, I'll resist the temptation to analyse in full as this is already becoming an essay.
  Round 8 was against Poland, which I don't have hand records for, but we won 16-14.

Onto Round 9. This was against Germany, and more importantly (from my point of view) it was on Vugraph. For the uninitiated, Vugraph is the feature by which BBO is able to screen live bridge matches. Anyone on BBO can watch. The biggest events draw thousands of spectators. Knowing that anyone, anywhere, can be watching you as you try to decide which of the thirteen cards you should play, or the various bids you can make, would surely strike the nerves of anyone. And I had never done it before. That sort of pressure can easily affect decisions - and has. I have been a spectator as a player has completely crumbled under the pressure - it isn't nice. Now it was my turn to try and cope.
  The nerves I felt for the first few boards of this match were second only to the first five boards against Denmark. However, I was pleased to find I coped somewhat better, and things certainly became easier after they bid to a 6 Clubs which didn't make. By that time we had also (completely unbeknown to us) accrued another big swing by bidding a routine 3NT when our counterparts bid 5 Diamonds coming off.
  That's not to say things didn't go wrong. I misread a situation in 3NT and went off with a chance to make it, and we got an 800 in the minus column too. Vugraph crashed with a few boards to go, and although we played on oblivious, some of our supporters were left under the impression we lost the match. My Dad was actually told Scotland had "snatched defeat from the jaws of victory", when in fact we did gain 11 IMPs on the last board to win the match 16-14.
  As for my Vugraph experience, I made mistakes, which I had been dreading, but this had a positive effect. For a start, I was not nervous by the time the match ended - I had partner to thank for that. I was rather annoyed when he hadn't found the defence I'd been looking for on one board, but to my delight I found that I could not be annoyed and nervous at the same time. I promptly told myself I was annoyed for the rest of the match, and managed my nerves rather well. As for my mistakes, it made me feel like I wasn't showing myself properly - and that was a good thing. Next time I'm on Vugraph (if there is one), there will be a determination to show what I can do which should keep the nerves at bay. I certainly won't be dreading it like I was this match.
  The eagle eyed will have noticed that this was our third 16 in a row. If nothing else, we were grinding matches out. This is a quality that every International Bridge team wants to have in its locker in case things don't go well, so we were pleased to prove that we could do it. It didn't occur to me at the time, but we had at this point won 6 of the last 7 matches - something that would have been unthinkable before play started, and certainly far in excess of expectations.

What my Dad had been told actually applied to our next match, against Austria. We were winning comfortably at one stage, but then we contrived to throw it away on the last two boards by looking for a slam that wasn't there and one major misunderstanding. We lost 14-16. In fairness, one major misunderstanding in the space of 261 boards, for a partnership that had never met, and only one month to prepare for an International tournament, is an excellent return, even if it costs a match. We would both have bitten the hand off anyone that offered us that before the tournament.

We finished the day with a disappointing 8-22 against Netherlands Blue. I think this was one of those matches where our luck just was not there. Netherlands Blue played really well, leaving us no margin for error, and capitalised on a few Scottish mistakes. It was disappointing, but not unexpected - it was our first single-figure VP score since the match against Israel, which was pretty good going.

Wednesday started with a match against another Dutch team - the White team. Nothing interesting happened at our table, except maybe one hand that Falco won't thank me for posting, and we lost the match 13-17.

Onto Round 14 (not 13; we had a bye), and a match against Finland. We only had two minus scores on the card - a solid Game and a -300. We had pushed to 3 Diamonds, which they found a double for. I can't post the hand as I can't remember how we (me, I think) contrived to come down 2, and this contributed to 9 IMPs out - the only board we lost IMPs on in the match. However, in a very flattish match, it was hard to pull back this loss over 9 boards, in a match we were hoping to win.
  Boards 12-15 were flat, a fact I will accept with good grace given we did have a +170, followed by a 2, a 1, and another flat board. On Board 19, after a competitive auction I played and made 3 Hearts - the optimum result, but my counterpart didn't make (I don't know much about what happened at my team mates' table), and the match was level. It swung our way on Board 20 when our opponents attempted a thin 3NT that turned out to be way too thin. We took it two off for 200, gaining 3 IMPs and yet another 16 VPs.

In Round 15, we lost 7-23 to Norway. I certainly didn't think our performance in the match merited such a heavy defeat, but I can't produce evidence from hand records (because I don't have them for this round) to back this conviction up.

In Round 16, we were a bit unlucky I thought. On the second board, I doubled a 5 Club Contract which made with two overtricks, which is absolutely fine as long as our team mates find the Slam their way (I wouldn't expect them to find the 50% Grand which happens to make). That would have turned an 11-19 defeat into another 16-14 win. We did have our biggest swing in during this match: 15 IMPs for 4 Spades Doubled making, when combined with our team mates' score.

Our last match of the Swiss was against the England Under 25 team. As they were flying quite high at the time and we weren't, this was a bit of a surprise. We'd scored a maximum (or nearly) against the Under 20s on the Sunday, but this was a different prospect. We would be doing well to hang on to their coat tails. We did, though; Falco and I holding our own but we came out just on the wrong side of things - a narrow 13-17 defeat, which we felt was less than we deserved.

At this point, the teams were divided into Groups of 4 for the Thursday Finals (or Semi Finals, for those in the top 4). Each team would play against every other in their group, in 14 board matches. We were in the second bottom group, which we were happy with (the worst we could finish was 20th and that would still be better than expected), but we were not happy to see Ireland in our group. (Or at least I wasn't). What were they doing in 17th place? Also in our group were Finland and Norway. This did not bother me - I wanted another crack at them.

Unfortunately, 14 boards is not long enough when you miss a Slam and your team-mates miss a Game. Those were the two big swings of the match against Finland, and despite the team playing well for the other 12 boards, we could not recoup the deficit. We lost 10-20.

On to the rematch against Norway. Starting with the second half, my first hand was Board 22:

-
AJ875432
6
AK63

You open 2 Clubs with this. (Five losers; this is worth a GF in International Bridge). Apparently I couldn't make this bid in England - the 16 point rule. That deserves a separate rant, and this post is not about ranting (or raving).
Partner says a negative 2 Diamonds. You have strong options because you do not allow a "2D relay" in your system. You bid 3 Hearts, which is a self-agreement. Partner says 3 Spades (Italian Cue), you say 4 Clubs (Italian Cue) and partner says 4 Spades (Italian Cue).
For the uninitiated, partner has shown the Ace of Spades (or a void, but the odds favour the ace). He has not denied the King, nor has he shown it. He has no diamond controls. What is your call?

The auction went very wrong for us. As a result, we gained 13 IMPs. We lost an IMP on the next board (again, we don't know the score as we play), before Falco made 10 tricks in 3NT for +11 IMPs. We then lost 23 IMPs over the next two boards - partly our fault for making a phantom sacrifice. We'd set a target of getting 30% of judgement decisions right. I think over the week we got at least that and probably better, but against Norway we hardly got any right.
  Case in point: Board 27 - arguably. Do you want to be in 3NT or 5 Clubs here?

J92
AQ9
A103
AKJ2

K10
J1054
52
Q10953

My hand is the bottom hand.
3NT is in danger on a diamond lead if they are not 4-4. You will then require the heart finesse. 5 Clubs requires the same finesse and a good guess in spades. Add into the equation neither opponent has bid. 3NT is the superior contract. Even a 5-3 diamond split could be okay if the suit blocks.
I'm playing... you guessed it. 5 Clubs. And the 8 of Hearts is led.

I think this is a reasonable standard play problem. But I would anticipate most, if not all, Declarers at the White House getting it right.
My line:
Up with the Ace of Hearts. The King is almost certainly on my right after the lead. There is no point losing this finesse now; I have a chance at another one to make the contract and can concede the King of Hearts at a more convenient time. I play two rounds of clubs, starting with small to the 9 and small to the King. LHO shows out on the second round, so I cash the Ace.
The contract depends on "guessing spades right". The guess is, in fact, non-existent. Nothing I do will make a difference. If either opponent has Ace and Queen of spades, I cannot win. LHO has two natural tricks when he holds them, and the contract will come 2 off because of it. RHO can keep the queen to cover the third round of spades, so unless he has AQ doubleton, I can ill-afford them to be there, either. What about split honours? Again, unless RHO holds Qx, I won't win. One opponent will win either the first or second round of spades; and the other will hold their honour until round 3 if required, so I can't pitch a diamond. The bottom line: unless RHO has exactly two spades, one of which is the Queen, I am going down.
  Since the odds on that are not good, I am playing for every chance I can get. I play the Jack from dummy, in the hope that RHO will feel obliged to cover holding Qxx(x)(x)(x). I feel vindicated when I see the Queen - all of a sudden, this contract is making. I cover with the King; Ace wins. The best defence is a diamond switch - I have to win, play the 2 of spades to the ten, play the ten of clubs to the Jack and play a spade to pitch a diamond, before giving up a heart. As it happened, I didn't get that defence and the contract rolled in, and 11 IMPs along with it.

But perhaps my favourite board for subversive reasons was Board 17:
A106
987
K98
A754

K9
AK653
A7642
9

I hold the bottom hand, and am playing 4 Hearts. I get the Queen of Spades lead (from a hand that overcalled spades), which I win with the King. This contract seems innocent enough. I cash Ace and King of Hearts, and LHO shows out on the King. I have two heart losers instead of just 1 as I'd hoped. If I could have seen all the hands, of course I could've gone to dummy and ran the 9. Now I have an issue with trump control. If RHO wins a heart and plays a club, I'm going to have to tread carefully. So I look for another option than directly drawing trumps. I could draw the trumps by running diamonds once they are out - but there is a danger there too. If RHO is void in diamonds, then I may lose a trick I expect to win. However, I'm pretty sure that's not the case, because then LHO has a different overcall. So I play a small diamond to the King. Then I play the 9. RHO could be out of them by now, but if he ruffs in I have a plan. He can lead a black suit (clubs is the best choice, obviously), and I will win and play a diamond. That ensures I only have one diamond loser. Or, he could cash the heart first to make sure I don't do that. But I can still come to four heart tricks, a club, two diamonds and three spades, because I can finesse the spades through LHO. In fact, RHO has another diamond - the ten. I duck, because it is valuable that I preserve communication. LHO is forced to win with the Jack and he fires a club through. I win with the ace and play the 8 of diamonds off table. RHO could discard on this, but I will play the ace, and then run diamonds until he does ruff. In fact, he ruffs in, and now I see an opportunity developing as I pitch the 6. Not to make the contract - that is already seen to.
  RHO returns a club, and I ruff. I now have two trumps left compared to RHO's one. I give him a chance to take his remaining trump trick when I play the Ace of diamonds. Nothing doing, so I now play up to the Ace of spades and exit dummy's last heart. This forces RHO to win his last trump now, on trick eleven. He only has black cards left. He selects one, and I ruff. My last remaining card is not only a winner - it is the seven of diamonds - the beer card. I knew playing for Scotland brought out the best in me.
  That board was flat, of course, but the next board provided a swing when our opponents didn't bid a 23 point Game. This was yet another match where big swings were important, but this time it was to our favour. Although Norway scored on seven of the fourteen boards and we scored on 5, all five of our swings were significant and we won by 51 IMPS to 29 - or 20-10 on VPs.

Beer cards might be like busses - I've waited many years to score one, and then I do so in two consecutive matches. Board 1 of our final match - against Ireland - and I did it again, although as the diamond suit was a 9 card fit, it lacked the panache of the first. Sadly that was one of few good moments in the match against Ireland. Although Falco and I did well enough (I thought), for the team this match did not go well at all and we lost heavily - 8-22 on VPs.

That was enough to see us finish bottom of our final group. Time for us to take stock of how we did over the tournament as a whole.
In my opinion we did really well. There were no aspirations for us going into the tournament. We were probably favourites for last place. The odds were stacked against us. For a start, we were a team of four. That meant every one of us played every single board. That was a significant disadvantage over the teams of six (or the Dutch, who predominantly had teams of 8), whose players could rest for the odd match. Which gives the winners of the tournament, Netherlands Red, even more credit as they played four-handed. But then, they are four World Class Juniors. We were a team of two experts and two advanced players. Not only that, but neither of our partnerships had played together before. I think our team mates had one practice session on BBO. Falco and I practiced intensively on BBO but only met just before play started. The other three had experience of intense junior International competition, but I hadn't. Although I thrived on it for the most part, I had plenty of new things to get used to. My two most nervous matches were Denmark and Germany, without a doubt. I learned important lessons in those matches - one of the most important ones being how to handle nerves. I won't be nealy as scared of appearing on Vugraph for a second time (if that ever happens) as I was for my first.
  We also lacked an NPC (more on this below).
  Then the draw was unkind to us. Our starting group was a Group of Death. We didn't always get the luck of the draw in the Swiss. And then Ireland somehow managed to find their way into the E-Final along with us. I wouldn't have minded so much if they'd done to Finland and Norway what they did to us.
  Yet what did we do? We somehow emerged from the Group of Death with three victories and two defeats. This included the major scalp of the Czech Republic. We strung together some 16-14 victories on the second day. We ensured before the last day even started we couldn't finish in the bottom four by getting into the E-Final with some room to spare. If anyone had predicted we'd do what we did, they'd be up there with the big-time psychics like Paul the Octopus.

So what was the key? How did a team of such little prospect achieve so much? I think there are several reasons.
Firstly, we had an excellent Captain. We were originally going to be accompanied by Jim Hay, who is a top class coach. Any team's chances improve when they get Jim on board. We had the blow of losing him as NPC, and Alex took up the mantle as Playing Captain. And boy, did he do a good job. His leadership, knowledge of the game, advice and humour played a significant part in punching above our weight.
Then there was the team spirit. This is an often under-estimated factor, but I think Scottish juniors are very good at maximising their strength here. For the amount of work we put into the week, we were as laid back as possible and generally enjoyed our time there. Analysis was always constructive, and disagreements about system etc were handled with patience and understanding. Certainly I feel that it was not just the understanding that Falco and I had, but the lack of misunderstanding, that speaks volumes for our partnership as a whole. You certainly wouldn't have caught us at the "shouting match" antics of some of our opponents.
Also, I think the underdog tag suited us. We had not been given any demands from the SBU about how far up the field we had to come. So we just took each match one at a time and tried to win where we could. If we played well, we had the element of surprise. We were an unknown entity to most of our opponents.

Overall, it was a very successful trip. I have waited a long time to get back on International duty and I was glad to go and fly the flag with the others. And fly it we did. If an under-strength Scotland team can even compete at the White House, then maybe it won't be too long before we can really make waves at an International event. Well, we can live in hope.